The Record: VA answers

OUR NATION'S veterans deserve to be treated with honor and respect. Yet too many of them have literally not been treated at all. The scandal within the Department of Veterans Affairs already has exposed disturbing scheduling practices at a VA facility in Phoenix. While the desire for a scapegoat is politically appealing, the need for a full accounting of what transpired and how to repair the damage is more compelling.

Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki probably has lost his ability to lead the agency, but until the Office of Inspector General completes its full investigation, there is little to be gained in Shinseki's resignation. The Obama administration must fully understand how dysfunctional the VA has become before it can assess who would be best to initiate reforms.

The Inspector General's Office issued a preliminary report Wednesday that said more than 1,000 veterans were "at risk of being lost or forgotten" after being kept off the official waiting list at a veterans hospital in Arizona. Adding to the outrage, the report said it found that "inappropriate scheduling practices are systemic throughout" some other VA facilities.

A more extensive report is scheduled to be issued in August. Some members of Congress have already called for Shinseki's resignation. Republican House Speaker John Boehner and Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi haven't yet, with Boehner saying he doesn't see how Shinseki's resignation right now will answer the questions about how this happened and what are the underlying causes for the agency's issues. He's right.

But Congress should work together to improve our veterans' health care situation, which is becoming more challenging. Rep. Ralph Hall, a Republican from Texas who just lost his primary bid, is the last World War II veteran in Congress. He told The New York Times the Congress he joined in 1981 was more cooperative than the modern one, in large part because of the shared experience of those who had fought in World War II.

While the outrage at the wait times for veterans is bipartisan, discussions on how to improve the situation remain divided between expanding funding to the VA's operations and providing vouchers to get treatment from private facilities.

There's no easy answer, as some regions in the country already face a shortage of primary care doctors, and many veterans groups say the Department of Veterans Affairs still has the greatest expertise in areas important to veterans returning from combat, such as traumatic brain injury, post-traumatic stress disorder and amputee care.

For Shinseki's part, he wrote an Op-Ed article in USA Today saying he had already told his administration to directly contact the veterans waiting for appointments in Phoenix and also placed members of that hospital's leadership on leave. He said he already had a team assess the facility's practices and began taking actions that are consistent with recommendations in the inspector general's report.

The August report may determine that the systemic issues are caused by officials higher up the chain than just the regional facilities. But for now, Shinseki, a retired Army four-star general, should remain at the helm.